


Feet

by auworksforme



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gender or Sex Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 05:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/949316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auworksforme/pseuds/auworksforme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Henry Philip McCoy would be Henrietta?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feet

Henrietta's feet hurt. They did most of the time, curled up in the largest shoes she could find, but now they hurt more than ordinary. Possibly because the principal had told her that she should be ready for an important visitor and that rising from a seat in front of that visitor would be rude.   
  
The principal had implied that the visitor would be someone who would appreciate her brain. Henrietta prayed for someone from Yale. Or Harvard. Just something so that she could escape this place with narrow-minded people, who hated it that she was too smart and too fast.  
 _No, you can never be too smart._   It were her fathers' words.    
  
She curled her toes, shifted her weight and prayed for the visitor to not be too late. 

~~

  
  
That had been little over five years ago. In Harvard, there were less people affronted by Henry's (it had stuck after the first professor had expected a boy) intelligence. She knew she was too tall for a girl, too gangly without enough curves. The only reason why she kept her hair long (and therefore, an occasional hazard during lab tests) was to show that she really was of the feminine sex.   
  
Of course, her feet were unchanged, but Henry (it somehow suited her more than to think of herself as Hen-ri-et-ta Philippa McCoy) exercised less at Harvard, preferring runs by herself every weekend over team sports. And in that way, she was only known for her brain, not for her horrible feet.   
  
Yes, in some ways, Harvard was her natural habitat. There was always a new subject to discover, a new professor to interact with over humankind, Darwin or deep space.   
And there was Peter. Peter who was four years older and much-liked but still always had time for Henry. Who called her Dorothy after admitting to him that she would love to make a discovery like the Egyptian chemist.   
Peter was the one who made Henry wish that she was cute and pixie and without glasses and with normal feet she could put in heels or something.   
  
Peter was the one who broke her heart after admitting to her (after her graduation, what a horrible timing was that?) that he was quite sure he was homosexual.   
  
It wasn't long after that another principal (well, a Dean, to be exact) told her about an important visitor who was quite curious about her intelligence.   
  
The CIA offered her an intern-ship, with possibilities of a job as soon as she turned eighteen. Henrietta (for the CIA she was Henrietta again, the organisation refusing to give a girl a boy's name) said yes. After making sure that there wouldn't be a physical check-up.   
  
  
Two years later, Agent McTaggert brought two men into their department and Henrietta McCoy had to share her feet with the world.

~~

"I'm ever so sorry."   
  
Charles Xavier was a professor and a so-called mutant. He had called Henrietta also a mutant and had introduced his friend as Erik Lensherr, quite a powerful mutant. And there was his sister, a girl about Henrietta's own age.   
  
They all had different mutations, the professor explained over lunch. He was a mind reader, Erik controlled metal in every possible way and Raven was a shape shifter.   
  
"But you're beautiful like this, why would you want to change?" Henrietta had blurted it out before thinking it through. Which she normally never did, but this wasn't normal.   
  
Raven had flinched, Erik had sighed. Henrietta had immediately apologized.  
  
"That was rude of me. I'm very sorry. I just .. well, you saw my feet. You see me right now. I would j-"  
  
"That's enough." The professor's voice was soft but firm. "There's no need for you to feel such an intense dislike for your looks."  
  
"Really Charles, are we motivational speakers now? She's a teenager, of course she's insecure. It will pass."  
  
 _It would pass? Could he be any more condescending?_  
  
The professor smiled at her. _Erik has suffered greatly and hasn't really known an ordinary life. Things like someone's looks are small to him, yes._   
  
"It's very peculiar to have a voice that isn't your own inside your head."  
  
Raven sighed. "Just tell him not to. He can stay out easily. But Henr- can I call you Henry?" She leaned over the table. "I was born with a blue skin and yellow eyes. People have called me demon or monster. I shape shift out of necessity, not insecurity."   
  
Henrietta had kept nodding until Raven had told her about her real looks. "Really? How? That's extraordinary, you carry a whole other pigment with y-"  
  
Erik rolled with his eyes and leaned back. "For how long have you been CIA's puppy?"  
  
"I'm no-one's puppy. They asked me to work here for my intelligence and I like it here, they don't judge m-"  
  
"Sure they do. Everyone who's different is judged."  
  
"Erik, that's enough." Charles smiled again. "We're going to work with the CIA and it's good to know they're nice to work with."  
  
"As long as they don't know you're a mutant."  
  
Henrietta felt like throwing something at him. Was there ever a man more angry and frustrated? "I didn't even knew I was a so-called mutant. This organisation .. this department, well, my boss .. he has never been disgusted by me or my mind."  
  
"Yet you never told him about your feet, about your animal s-"  
  
"I'm not an animal!" If this was a way to win her to their cause, they were miserably failing. Henrietta rose. "It was nice to meet you, professor. Raven."  
  
"Charles, please."  
  
"But I have to go now. Good day."   
  
Inside she was seething, although she heard her father's voice telling her off for being rude. These people wanted to wallow in the fact that they were different. Henrietta just wanted to fit in.

~~

 

That had been months ago. Ugly things had happened, which made Henrietta move to Charles' mansion, where he let her use the lab. It had shown her that she was living in a world where you had to pick a side or were put on the wrong one.   
  
But with all that, there was also Alexander Summers. A tall, skinny boy that called her Bozo and asked why she was here, what was different about her and really looked at her, instead of acting like she was part of the wall paper. Alex ("no-one calls me Alexander, it's a mouth full and how the heck did your parents come up with Henrietta Philippa I'm going to call you Hank") wasn't the only one in the building, there was also Sean who was a comic geek and seemed to be able to take everything in his stride.   
  
But Alex hung around in her lab and asked all these questions and shared so much things with her (until he had a macho-moment, barked at her to not tell anything and ran off) that it made moving here and all the other trouble, worth it.   
Henrietta knew she was falling for him. And fast. Which was a small comfort, that she was still able to feel emotions. It was a .. safety blanket, something innocent she wouldn't act on anyway. He probably saw her as a sister or something.  
  
"Hanky-panky?" Alex' head popped up from behind the door. "Have you already been outside today?"  
  
"Hanky-panky is really too much." Henrietta wasn't going to blush because she got a stupid nick name. "I saw Mammatus clouds, that's all. So it will probably storm a bit later today."  
  
"Mama who?" He walked in. "Anyway, the general wants you to come out and train. Use your feet?"  
  
She winced. Of course by now everyone knew about her feet. Sean had tried to make her relax about it by saying that she could be a clothes model, as long as they didn't photograph her feet. Alex had just stared at them like they could attack him any moment.   
Henrietta had wished for death.   
  
"Hen-ri-et-ta?" Alex waved a hand in front of her face. She was just two inches taller than him, but she always felt obliged to stay seated when he was around.   
  
"Yes. All right. I'm coming."   
  
"What are you doing?"   
  
"I want to discover a combination of hormones that will inflect my p-" She realized who she was talking to. "Nothing. Something that could change my feet to normal size."  
  
"But you won't be able to walk so fast." He leaned over her shoulder. "Gross, is that blood?"  
  
Alex smelt so good. Henrietta breathed him in, savouring how close he was.   
  
"I'm going to get the general." His hand touched her shoulder for a moment. "Come on Bozo, you don't want him to whine about you being inside too often."  
  
"I'll go change." She rose slowly.   
  
"Can I watch?" He wriggled his eyebrows.   
  
"You don't want that." Henrietta tried not to blush.   
  
Alex rolled with his eyes. "I'll go tell Erik that you're coming."   
  
"Thanks Alex." He really didn't want to see her change, it was probably just a standard reply of his.   
  
"I'm giving you five minutes!" With that, he left the lab.   
  
Like she needed five minutes. Erik would pressure her into running on barefoot, so that saved a lot of time. Henrietta looked longing at the concoction on her desk. She knew she was _this_ close to finding a cure for her feet.

 

~~

"So ..err.. training went really well, right?"   
  
Alex and her were doing the dishes after dinner. Erik had effectively verbally pummelled her in running barefoot. It had been a sweet reward when she out-ran him without trying really hard.  
  
"It was all right. It still feels strange. To show them."  
  
Alex passed her a plate. "They're just feet."  
  
"And you just blow holes through mannequins." She loved how close he was to her.   
  
"That's different. You- your feet" He looked the other way. "are useful."   
  
"Thanks. I think."   
  
"And people should just not be afraid of things that are different."  
  
"That would be nice." Henrietta felt like she was on fire, his body so close to hers.   
  
"So ..erm .. do you want to get a drink some time?" The points of Alex' ears are red and his back was almost completely turned, but she thought it's completely fine because she was sure she was grinning like a mad scientist.   
  
"You mean like .. outside?" He wants to be seen with _her_?  
  
"Yes of course, Bozo." Alex hands her another plate.   
  
Henrietta knew it to be impossible, but it felt like all her red blood cells were cheering her on. She knew this doesn't mean a lot and she shouldn't be as euphoric as she feels right now, but she couldn't control herself. The lab, the cure for her feet, it could wait.   
  
"I'd love to", she breathes. "When did you want to go?"  
  



End file.
